Category: Uncategorized

In order to win our demands (see below) and more it is key that we build a vibrant campaigning union. We must articulate the demands and our pressure on the employer. But the way to do that is to campaign and build the union. It is our members collective action that wins concessions.

Home Working

It is clear that HMRC has moved onto the front-foot regarding members returning to offices, given the increased comms and team meetings that have been issued and organised to discuss this. The recent Pay & Contract Reform Agreement (PACR) confirmed that HMRC can work from home for at least two days per week – and whilst this will form part of our contracts moving forward, there’s no reason for us to settle for this. Indeed, at a point when so many Civil Servants are working from home full-time, the national union’s call for two-day per week home working to be rolled out across the entire Civil Service is a massive step backwards.

It should be noted that the home-working aspect of PACR was not a gain won by PCS, but rather a mechanism required by HMRC to deal with the fact that in some (if not all) Regional Centres, there are simply too many staff for the building capacity – and this is why we shouldn’t settle for it. Members in HMRC have demonstrated for over a year that they can work effectively from home for five days a week and beyond this, most members find it easier to work from home, save money & have far more control over their work-life balance.

The BLN calls for all HMRC members to be able to work flexibly and decide where it is best for them to work. This includes moving staff between roles where a person wishes to work from home but their current role doesn’t make that possible.

Pay

Whilst the PACR delivered pay rises for a number of members, many members towards the top end of their pay scale did not receive anything substantial, but still lost a plethora of valued terms & conditions – these members have been abandoned. Whilst the NEC has been keen to point out the difficulties in beating the Tories’ undemocratic strike ballot threshold, the NEC also vehemently argued for a pay policy which meant that prior to Covid, when a majority of PCS members in HMRC voted in favour of strike action over pay, this action was not authorised by the union. As a result, PCS in HMRC went straight into pay talks with one hand tied behind its back, losing our most important piece of leverage.

BLN activists have argued against the NEC’s pay policy since its inception two years ago. We put forward a national campaign not just about pay, but also taking up many of the issues that affect members, this potentially could have engaged members and delivered a ballot over the undemocratic threshold. In two years the NEC has delivered nothing over pay, save for one Westminster debate. The BLN believes that a national campaign is necessary to deal with pay across the Civil Service, but is not so short-sighted as to block groups which can take industrial action from doing so.

The BLN demands that we have fully-funded pay rises which are not linked to detrimental changes in terms & conditions. The NEC pay campaign has been an abject failure and it’s clearly time for a completely new campaign which trusts in the strength of members to deliver the action required to achieve a fair pay rise for every single member.

Terms & Conditions

Whilst the issues surrounding changes to T&Cs were quiet as we approached the implementation date of 1^st June, the damage done by PACR is now becoming apparent. The department has basically used the GEC to destroy a myriad of protections that members have fought to retain for decades. This includes the loss of the MIS Agreement, attacks on Alternative Working Patterns, changes to allowances, loss of control over shift patterns, the introduction of mandatory unpaid overtime & loss paid breaks.

The GEC was not honest with members about the extent of the damage that PACR would do and worse still, the GEC did not even seem to be aware of a variety of these problems until after it voted to recommend the deal to members. Unfortunately, the deal is now through and we need to deal with the consequences.

We can however have our cake and eat it – there is nothing to stop our group fighting to win back each and every term and condition lost as a result of PACR – and indeed, given that it was a failure on the part of the union to prevent this situation from arising, we have an obligation to do this for every member. This includes seeking contractual improvements for members that were essentially left out of any contract reform such as the Surge Rapid Response Teams.

More importantly, the group has two years until this pay deal ends – we absolutely cannot be put in the same situation again. We have two years to get this group organised and ensure that in two years, HMRC does not come back to the table to either attack more T&Cs, or to reintroduce another pay cap.

Outsourcing & Contingent Labour

Austerity has meant that HMRC resource is cut to the bone. Minimum staffing levels are maintained across the department. This has made us ill-equipped to handle changing priorities, such as Brexit. HMRC has attempted to crisis manage this situation through a reliance on outsourcing and temporary staff. Yet time and again these decisions have created knock on problems as the department underestimates the complexity of the work undertaken by our members and the private sector finds itself unable to perform the roles correctly while maintaining a profit. When the private sector needs to make a choice between a good service to the public and profits, profits will always be their choice.

Outsourcing also cuts across our ability to defend our members. This has been particularly stark in CDIO where many staff have been employed by RCDTS Limited – a private company wholly owned by HMRC. RCDTS chose to follow civil service processes when it’s convenient to do so, but argues that its staff aren’t civil servants when PCS presses for recognition rights and consultation.

HMRC is increasing outsourcing as part of the move to Regional Centres. In house security guards are being privatised; private companies will be responsible for administering room bookings. This is able to happen because there’s never been a group wide campaign to raise awareness of the true impact of BOF and to put forward the alternative of in housing in a serious way.

Members of BLN will continue to argue that the GEC must launch a campaign group wide to resist the further imposition of outsourced & temporary contacts:

• Making the case for permanent staff and outsourced staff to be brought into HMRC.
• Fight for an agreement with HMRC on fair workloads and training, accounting for time needed to receive and embed training.
• Identify HMRC responsibilities by work stream and the staffing levels (using fair workloads) necessary to accomplish those responsibilities.
• Press HMRC to put a business case to HMT for funding to achieve a fully staffed HMRC.
• Support that business case with group materials to agitate public opinion about of tax lost due to tax avoidance that isn’t tackled because of under staffing.
• Make the case to show that in housing provides the best outcome for HMRC staff and the public generally.

Diversity and equality

HMRC token gestures to fight discrimination in our workplaces is not enough. All policies must be subject to review to root out unequal practices that go against common principles of fairness. All policies must be applied consistently in HMRC Groups. It simply isn’t good enough for a Group to act as if it is the employer and to subject the staff in that Group to different policies and practices. All members are entitled to be treated fairly by HMRC as the employer.

Equality and accessibility must be a fully integrated part of all PCS organising, bargaining and campaigning. Austerity has hurt all workers, but it has hit women, BAME, LGBTQ+ and disabled workers even more. The Tax Justice campaign must be re-launched to help fight all cuts to public services and an alternative fought for fully funded public and local services including HMRC. With well-paid, highly trained staff is crucial to the union’s equality agenda.

The BLN call for a campaign to demand time in work to attend union meetings and participate in the union. Many Members are unable to attend meetings outside of working hours due to other commitments. This is doubly true for members with caring responsibilities. This discrimination has gone overlooked for too long and must be challenged.

Winning on these demands

In order to win these demands and more it is key that we build a vibrant campaigning union. We must articulate the demands and put pressure on the employer.

Too often demands are put forward by the GEC with no connection or communication with branches. It isn’t surprising that HMRC feels no pressure to deliver when even affected members aren’t aware of what’s been called for on their behalf.

The way to apply pressure to the employer to win is to campaign and build the union. It is our members collective action that wins concessions.

If you believe in our programme, please join the BLN and help deliver the wins that our members deserve.

The newly elected DWP PCS Group Executive Committee, had its first meeting on the 24^th June against a background of thousands of our members being bullied into returning to the workplace – all because the government wants to start putting public pressure on the unemployed. This is outrageous given we have all proved that our work can be done safely from home.  Another example of the Tories putting the economy before workers’ lives, let alone the claimants who are being forced to come into the jobcentres too. There has also been increased pressure for work coaches to see claimants in an unsupportive and frankly dangerous way, such as:

• Forcing claimants into the office when meetings could be done over the phone;
• Cramming in too many appointments into too many desks;
• 10 minute ‘tick box’ interviews meaning insufficient time to go into the individual needs of the claimants;
• The use of ‘ghost diaries’ to increase numbers being seen in the office; and
• The promotion of Kickstart interviews to18-24-year-olds to get them off the books and into schemes rather than proper jobs.

Abject Failure of GEC Leadership – Branches Left to Support Members Themselves

The Left Unity leadership’ response has been woeful. This was the same before the elections and is getting worse now they are all safely re-installed into their positions. Not only has their response following the membership ballot been pitifully slow, not meeting until the 24^th June, some 3 weeks after the ballot result displays not only a lack of urgency but an abject failure to support members facing management’s disgraceful tactics.

The union’s group conference was a huge, missed opportunity to agree how the union was going to do the basic job of sticking up for members in our workplaces, following the 74% yes vote in favour of action. And collectively support and mobilise branches to build confidence and consciousness of the membership to vote yes overwhelmingly to win a statutory ballot to put safety first.

Broad Left Network supporters argued for clear demands and a clear strategy to build support in the workplace to increase the pressure on the employer to ensure safety is given the priority it should have both in the workplace and at home.  Demands that include:

1.No forced return to the workplace. Any return and on what basis only in agreement with PCS

2. Full safety measures to protect all members at home and in the workplace including supportive measures on mental health and stress.  

3. Work coach discretion about how members support individual claimants and by what method, with safety paramount.

4. End micro-management and harsh implementation of ED – quality services to the public and equality must be taken into account.

5. Permanent DWP jobs for those on Fixed Term Contracts and Brook Street agency contracts.

But yet again the Left Unity leadership have chosen path of ‘hot air bluster’ with management and failed to recognise the need to mobilise branches and members behind the negotiators to build pressure to collectively win the dispute.   Effectively branches and members have been left to fend for themselves. 

Hold BEC and Members’ Meetings – Don’t Kick the Can Down the Road!

The Broad Left Network believes that now is the time to hold Branch Executive Committee meetings and agree to call a series of members’ meetings to put clear demands to members and build for a collective response against the employer’s attacks on our members.  However, yet again, this GEC are ‘kicking the can’ down the road twiddling their thumbs whilst our members are under attack. Why not galvanise the membership and use the collective strength of our union to turn outwards and demonstrate the members’ anger and use this to build the pressure to back up any talks with the employer? That is what management would fear.  BLN believes branches and regions should discuss and agree our demands and put demands on the GEC to act in support of our members on the vital issues to improve working conditions and protect safety. 

Same Old Left Unity – Lack of Democracy

It’s a new GEC but still the same old Left Unity. No democracy and no transparency. Advisory Committee posts were handed out to their friends without any discussion and no information about which branches had nominated which candidates. To stifle discussion, the basic rules in the Committees “Standing Orders” are not adhered to with detailed papers being issued at the last minute rather than the standard time of at least 5 days in advance. Whilst it is not always possible to get reports in on time this GEC leadership rarely if at all gets any reports in 5 days before.  Instead Left Unity operate a mantra of knowledge is power and deliberately leaves sharing reports until the last minute. These are not the actions of a left wing, democratic union leadership.

Building the Left

BLN will continue to work to build a collective response involving branches.  We would ask all those on the left to join with us on this.  BLN supporters on the GEC were the ones putting the leadership under pressure at this meeting. We believe a united campaigning left union can make a difference to the membership as a whole and look forward to building campaigning links with all reps who want to see the union take a fighting stance and take members’ interests forward.

Join BLN – For a Fighting Campaigning Democratic Union

If you would like to join the BLN and build an alternative to the GEC leadership, please email pcsblnetwork@gmail.com

In a twist on PCS Conference 2019, when the NEC flatly opposed motions to include pensions and redundancy rights in the union’s national campaign, this year their argument was that they’re taking a different tack now, because they will include pensions after all.

Despite the digital nature of the Conference, and the assiduous way in which speakers were prevented from interacting with Conference delegates, the guffaws were unmistakeable from across the union when the NEC said they have a strategy and it isn’t the same failed effort as before.

Day 2 of Conference, which was held online on 13^th and 14^th June, debated a number of important motions, the key of which were on the union’s national campaign. Two years late, the NEC finally acknowledged that a campaign on pay alone is unlikely to unite members.

This is especially true thanks to the NEC endorsement of a multi-year pay offer in HMRC, which involves the sale of terms and conditions in exchange for a moderate pay rise for some. In the last pay ballot, HMRC were the biggest group to get above the 50% anti-strike threshold.

Keeping HMRC involved in a battle on pay is possible, if the issue is posed correctly to members, i.e., that despite this purchase of terms and conditions by the employer, members in Revenue and Customs are still owed more to cancel out the effect of cuts since 2010.

This is an argument we simply do not believe the Left Unity NEC has the capacity to win – but which the Broad Left Network does.

Broad Left Network supporters have argued in favour of broadening the pay campaign from 2018, and were denounced as pursuing an unrealistic shopping list of demands. Without a campaign, any demands at all appear unrealistic, and any hope of a campaign in 2020 was sabotaged not by the pandemic but by a leadership whose first instinct was to write to the Cabinet Office early on during the pandemic to water down our pay demand from 10% to “above inflation”.

The very most the NEC managed in 2020 was their humble petition to Parliament, with 100,000 signatures that secured a debate attended by 17 MPs and then promptly forgotten. Even this wasn’t achieved by the current leadership.

It took Rishi Sunak to announce the pay freeze on the Sunday morning chat shows on 22^nd November, and to follow up with the Autumn Statement confirming the pay freeze on 25^th November to put the spotlight on pay and to get the petition over 100,000 on 27^th November 2020.

The surge in signatures which followed this demonstrated that members were angry, but thanks to the total inanity of the NEC’s pay “campaign”, the union was not in a position to benefit from this or to be able to develop any leverage out of this surge in anger.

As on Day One of Conference, the majority of NEC-proposed motions were passed on Day Two, but delegates across the union have commented on just how lacklustre was the performance from the NEC top brass. Plenty of buzzwords and little of concrete worth was the order of the day.

Summing up A24, the NEC motion on pay, Glasgow R&C delegate and Broad Left Network supporter Bobby Young commented that “this flagship motion does nothing more than instruct the NEC to do its job!”

The NEC’s Motion A24 was carried, as was motion A25, a weak spoiler motion which confirmed a basic campaign demand of a national minimum wage of £12 per hour for all workers, rather than the £15 per hour proposed by Broad Left supporters, with more for London areas.

Other important motions which were debated included a review of the future political strategy, tax justice, the menopause and a key motion calling out the national leadership for the undemocratic nature of the conference, imposed by them despite the rules of the union.

Following a completely lacklustre speech from the NEC speaker it took Broad Left Network speakers including Nick Parker, from BEIS Midlands and Paul Suter from DWP Sheffield HQ to set out exactly what we expect of the leadership who have been remarkably quiet since their all or nothing approach to Labour during the last General Election. Not a whimper has been heard to defend the appalling attacks against Corbyn.

It is clear that we must have a political strategy that can reinforce our aims as a trade union – using our bargaining power to campaign for social and economic change in the interest of working people and their families.

The NEC decision to call for support for all Labour candidates in England and Wales was a serious error of judgment. It ignored the mandate given by ADC and the membership ballot by giving support to right wingers who had undermined Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and who were not sympathetic to PCS policies. 

That blanket approval and support to Labour looks even more indefensible with the replacement of Corbyn by Starmer and Labour’s clear move to the right.

The NEC must ensure that the review includes:

• published procedures for branches to discuss and agree with the NEC support for  parliamentary candidates worthy of PCS support.
• details of the PCS parliamentary group and publish the names.
• Westminster parliamentary group work to be directed by the NEC and a relevant sub-committee.
• work of parliamentary groups in devolved areas to be directed by the Nation Committees
• work in the regions with MPs and political activities in line with ADC policy to be directed by the appropriate regional committee.
• regular reports of political activities to be given to the NEC, Nation and Regional Committees and published to members.
• branches being allowed to support candidates in Devolved, Mayoral and Council elections 
• Review of rules around who can be candidates for the devolved administrations

However, the starting point must be current policy which gives PCS elected bodies the right to propose support for those candidates who support the union’s position on fighting against austerity, in respect of jobs, services and pay and pensions.

Overwhelmingly carried was a motion mandating the incoming NEC to fight for menopause rights at work. Instructions included developing a model policy for negotiation, ensuring flexible working is used to support menopausal staff, and pushing for training for managers.

This motion will provide much-needed support for menopausal members who shamefully have been ignored and abandoned by the employer.

The Broad Left Network welcomed the explicit inclusion of trans men alongside cisgender women in the moving speech, and further wish to highlight that menopause may be faced by anyone with a uterus including non-binary people.

While the written motion regrettably makes no reference to trans and non-binary workers, the mover clearly demonstrated that the express intention and spirit of the motion is that PCS’s work on menopause must be fully inclusive. The motion was passed on the express mandate that we must fight for menopause rights for every person who experiences it, of any gender. The incoming NEC must ensure that this is the case, and must consult including with PCS Proud and our trans members when developing menopause policy and strategy.

Astonishingly and despite a great deal of manoeuvring, a motion calling out the NEC for imposing conference arrangements on members despite the rules was finally discussed. In a complete re-write of history the NEC and other LU speakers bemoaned the fact that we are in very unusual circumstances and therefore the NEC should do as it likes. Completely missing the point about democracy and accountability as is becoming an increasing feature of the current NEC and their supporters. This was lost, but it was extremely close and should put the national union on notice that we will not tolerate their antics.

The Broad left network will continue to work to restore union democracy, ensure our leaders at all levels are accountable and put pressure to develop the campaigning fighting approach we need to ensure the union is equipped to deal with the huge challenges that are to come. Join us in that struggle.

Democracy is old fashioned, Serwotka tells PCS Annual Delegate Conference 2021

Spirited debate, marked the first day of PCS Annual Delegate Conference 2021, conducted online over 13^th and 14^th June.

Despite every effort to stitch up the Conference, including not permitting some well-known opponents to speak, and despite nominally getting the NEC motions through the Conference, margins were smaller than ever this year.

The cluster of motions from A9 to A12, which covered the debate on the future of PCS, as well as calls for the election of union Full Time Officers, to increase the accountability of the union to its members, is a good example.

Platitude after platitude, both in the text of motion A9, proposed by the NEC itself, and in the speeches from those , newly elected to the NEC for 2021/22, hand-picked to replace the flood of LU leaverswho got up to bray their allegiance to the Serwotka regime, was all that the NEC had to offer.

Despite bringing out what passes for big guns for this NEC, including the General Secretary himself, the NEC only won motion A9 by a hair, 60,617 for, 57,556 against and 2,156 abstentions.

That tiny majority was only achieved after the General Secretary publicly ruled out the very ideas he had hoped to push through, as part of the sham consultation run over late 2020, when reps were busy fighting to keep members out of the workplace, or safe if in them.

Serwotka promised that there would be no multi-employer branches, and that there would be no digital-by-default approach to union meetings.

What was of political significance during the debate was the moment where Serwotka lined up beside Reamsbottom and the right-wing General Secretaries of the past in arguing that electing full time officers is old fashioned and no one wants to elect the head of IT.

It might surprise a completely out of touch NEC to know that quite a few reps would probably like to elect that post and to make it properly accountable, given the wasteful gimmickry that has been the hallmark of PCS IT and the turn away from using the website for putting out information from negotiators in Groups, to keep members informed.

One of the larger branches in the union changing its vote would have been enough to sink A9, with its surfeit of vague buzzwords and meaningless action points, in favour of the far more definite A10, which sought to put focus where it needs to be: how we’re recruiting, why we’re not recruiting enough and why we’re losing members.

That is precisely the debate the NEC don’t want to have and which they have consistently ducked, because ultimately, it’s on their watch and they’re responsible.

Elections at the Conference did not go the way of Serwotka and his rubber stampers on the NEC.

Alan Dennis, national secretary of the Broad Left Network, and stalwart against the Moderates of CPSA, was elected to the PCS Standing Orders Committee, reflecting general discontent at the way this Conference has been handled.

Other important roles, elected by block vote from the Conference, went to Broad Left Network supporters, who are actually putting forward a strategy to deal with members’ concerns.

Given the way the Conference has been manipulated, and despite the narrow victories for the NEC motions, it’s clear that there is a significant group of reps and activists who sense that for all their self-congratulatory speeches, the emperor is a touch underdressed.

With around a third of branches not in attendance at the Conference, it’s also clear that a significant group of branches are utterly alienated by the way in which the union is being run, the huge centralisation, the closing down of debate, the stage management of important events.

Broad Left Network activists will spend the next year reaching out to branches, explaining the continuing political degeneration of Left Unity, who increasingly have no claim to be taken seriously as a left leadership, and renewing the battle for a fighting, democratic trade union from the ground up, one that engages all branches.

Strong Showing for PCS Broad Left Network ln First National Elections

Elections in the Public and Commercial Services union concluded on Friday 14th May with the election of a commanding majority for the Democracy Alliance on the union’s National Executive Committee for 2021-22. This means that the incumbent NEC, a leadership that is moving decisively to the right, has, with some exceptions, secured its own re-election, although on a very low turnout of 7.5%, with around 13,000 out of 170,000 members voting.

Broad Left Network activists, contesting the elections as an independent socialist group for the first time, secured one place on the 35-strong body, with young member Rachelle McDougall being elected. BLN activist Dave Semple secured sufficient votes to be elected to the NEC but due to a limitation on the maximum number of members from DWP, is knocked off in favour of the next highest candidate from outside DWP or HMRC.

Impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, during which tens of thousands of Civil Service PCS members have not been in their offices, and where the ability of activists to get out to workplaces to campaign has been drastically curtailed, Broad Left Network activists are far from despondent at securing one place on the National Executive Committee. This post will allow the left to continue to scrutinise and exert pressure on the re-elected leadership.

Broad Left candidate for PCS President Marion Lloyd finished a strong third, with around 2,500 votes – only 4000 votes behind the incumbent. From one of the smallest employer groups in the union, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Marion had sought to capitalise on nearly 10,000 votes in the November 2019 General Secretary election – but the Covid-19 pandemic has decisively cut across the ability of socialists to mobilise the workers who voted in the GS election.

BLN supporters proposed discussions with the Independent Left on an electoral agreement that the results show, could have made inroads into the DA majority. However, the IL’s lack of seriousness has been revealed by their refusal to properly engage with this.

Dirty tricks by the current executive have also played their role. Despite ensuring masks were worn, hand sanitiser was used and social distancing was observed during leafleting, activists from the Broad Left Network and our supporters were publicly condemned by the executive as having undermined the dispute between the union and management in the Swansea Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

As well as being simply untrue, this use of union resources such as the national website to publicly smear one of the factions standing in the election is an example of the worst kind of interference.

Standing on our record: building a left alternative in PCS

Far from undermining the strike in DVLA, Broad Left Network activists – including current NEC members Marion Lloyd, Alan Dennis, Fiona Brittle and Dave Semple – sought to strengthen the strike by ensuring that the most senior leadership in the union had a serious strategy. The Democracy Alliance NEC resorted to scurrilous public attacks to cover for their failure to ballot much earlier rather than their “too little, too late” approach.

This lack of seriousness is repeated in virtually everything the leadership of PCS has done for the last two years. To defend against the danger of a premature return to work during the successive peaks of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK, Broad Left Network activists called for the union to prepare a serious industrial response. Democracy Alliance, and its component parts the PCS Democrats and PCS Left Unity, argued for months that the Tories were not seeking a swift return to work, and then that it simply wouldn’t be possible to ballot during the pandemic.

As the big civil service areas, such as the courts and Jobcentres, began to force people back into the office and to insist upon resumption of face-to-face activities, it was belatedly discovered a ballot was vital to protect members safety, but the leadership had already squandered the momentum that could have been built up while the union’s leadership dithered. Even then, in DWP, this was limited to a consultative ballot, with no teeth. But for the intervention of the second wave of Covid-19 in late 2020, Jobcentre staff would have been forced back into the office. This seems to be exactly what is happening now, as the second wave has receded and renewed pressure is exerted by the bosses to drastically scale up face to face work in Jobcentres.

Faced with Tory and senior management indifference to the threat to staff of reopening Jobcentres and dragging in unvaccinated 18-to-24-year-olds, as well as the danger of reinstituting benefit sanctions amidst the continuing pandemic, the answer of the union’s right-wing leadership is exactly the same: a consultative ballot. That this move is months overdue, that it has no force and effect as members cannot take strike action afterwards, that it was launched after the Jobcentres actually reopened just emphasises how ill equipped the current leadership of the union is , even while they talk about defending members.

Coincidentally, the ballot in DWP, the largest group of members in the union, despite being weeks or even months later than would have been prudent, has fallen right in the middle of the election period, enabling the incumbent majority to use the machinery of the union to raise their profiles.

On pay, since 2019 the union’s National Executive Committee have done absolutely nothing that resembles building a meaningful campaign. At  Annual Delegate Conference in 2019, they put forward a hugely divisive motion to exclude pensions and redundancy rights from being added to the national pay campaign. These are all issues that require serious national struggle. By that point, three different ballots had failed to pass the 50% participation threshold imposed by the Tories and the result was a pay campaign stuck in the mud while pensions was returning to the minds of many members, as a result of legal campaigns and new information highlighting our overpayment of pension contributions. BLN activists argued we should use this to build momentum. The current leadership continued not to listen.

Meanwhile, with some employer groups getting over the 50% threshold and others not, BLN argued that it might be necessary to hold a disaggregated ballot, to allow some areas to establish their mandate for action and to take action in a coordinated way, whilst the union continued to agitate and build in areas which fell short. This would have enabled the launching of a dispute with a Tory government caught in a particularly weak position. 

This was not just opposed but denounced as industrial sabotage. It was also used as a dishonest excuse by some in Left Unity not to support the democratically elected LU candidate for AGS Chris Baugh. This not only effectively split LU but was a portent for the rightward shift of the union’s leadership that we’ve seen during Covid.

When the pandemic began, Broad Left Network activists recognised the extreme dependence of the Tory government upon Civil Servants, and the certainty that once the pandemic passed, austerity would resume. We argued that the pay campaign should be stepped up, linked directly with other issues and that the union should exploit the weakness of the Tories. This could start to undo more than a decade of pay austerity that had blighted the lives of many workers, especially at the lowest grades in the Civil Service, who now get a pay rise only when the minimum wage goes up.

Not only were we denounced as insensitive to anyone who would lose relatives to Covid-19, but the cabal at the top of the union threw out the union’s pay demand of 10% and wrote to the Cabinet Office – without the approval of the NEC – to tug their forelock and ask for an “above inflation” pay rise. The subsequent endorsement of this capitulation to national unity by the NEC, opposed only by BLN members, is an indictment of the Left Unity/Democracy Alliance NEC majority as well as the Independent Left who supported it.

The Tory grandees, sensing their weakness and recognising the weakness of the PCS leadership, offered what they thought would be enough to delay any renewed pay campaign. This succeeded. In the following months the most the NEC managed was a petition and a debate in parliament that was attended by a dozen MPs, not even a majority of MPs in the “PCS Parliamentary Group”. This is held up as a huge success despite the extra pennies that have found their way into members pockets is precisely nothing.

For every single issue the union has faced over the last several years, there is a clear divide between the PCS Broad Left Network, on the one hand, seeking to build a fighting, democratic trade union, and the increasingly rightwards moving PCS Left Unity and their PCS Democrat allies.

 Nowhere is this more apparent than in the struggle to ensure the accountability of the tops of the union’s full-time structure to the ordinary members of the union. Once upon a time, PCS Left Unity believed in electing all Senior National Officers in the union, and this has repeatedly passed the union’s Annual Delegate Conference – but for the Democracy Alliance this is merely a rhetorical pose, never meant to be acted upon.

The General Secretary himself has indicated clearly why this, despite commanding the support of the union’s membership and activist base, is forever on ice. His view is that the full- time officers answer to him, and he answers to the NEC. This really is a re-hash of the days of Barry Reamsbottom and the total resistance of the old right wing Moderates to the lay reps exercising any hands-on control of the union

Build the Broad Left Network, Build the Union

Broad Left Network activists recognise that, even had we taken control of the National Executive Committee in the 2021 elections, it would have had to be a platform to transform the union. The vibrant, combative, instinctively democratic culture of PCS has been rotting from the top down and stopping that rot is a fight that needs to be taken into every branch and every workplace, so that members see that there can be a union which is prepared to stand up and fight.

Broad Left Network activists have a serious programme for change. We are not interested in being a token opposition to the current leadership of our union which is bereft of any idea about how to build and develop a campaign with a serious chance of winning for members. 

We want to win our union back on the basis of a socialist programme, which is the only one that can ensure we have a fighting, democratic PCS and that can secure serious victories against a vicious Tory government and against the private sector bosses who with one hand grab an ever-bigger slice of public services while the other holds the whip they wield over our privatised members.

Over the next year we intend to take this fight into every single branch, to every single workplace in every single department and every single employer where there are workers represented by the union. One of the biggest things that divides us from the re-elected Democracy Alliance leadership is that they look for excuses not to fight blaming an absence of mood amongst members whereas we look to build the confidence of activists to fight and to win industrially and politically with the ideas of socialism.

If, like us, you know that our members want to fight, have the power to win and you want to help unite workers across this union, then join the Broad Left network.

By Marion Lloyd, PCS National President candidate

On Saturday 13^th March, young women and men from many backgrounds gathered on Clapham Common in protest at domestic violence, sexual harassment, violence against women more generally and against the indifference and hostility women face when they seek justice and safety.

Sparked by the murder of Sarah Everard, who appears to have been kidnapped when walking home, protests erupted across the UK. For the most part these protests seem to have passed off peacefully, in a socially distanced way, with police showing restraint and good judgment in terms of how they were handled – except in London.

Police were filmed handcuffing demonstrators, shoving women in attendance at the Saturday night vigil from behind and corralling demonstrators together regardless of social distancing. A statement from the activists who attempted to organise the “Reclaim these Streets” vigil suggested those in senior posts with the Metropolitan Police had refused to engage with them, when they were notified of the plans.

“Reclaim these Streets” had organised fifty stewards and had plans to ensure that the protest could happen safely even in the era of Covid-19.

Our right to protest is under attack.

The right to protest is under threat, a matter that should be of a major concern to all PCS members. Under the cover of a pandemic, the government are moving against our democratic rights – including the right to protest. It has already moved against workers taking industrial action. The threat is not just from heavy-handed policing on the ground, it is a systematic threat from the Tory government.

At the same time as protests were emerging following the murder of Sarah Everard, the government has been rushing through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. This passed its second reading on Tuesday 16^th March. This gives police sweeping powers to curtail protests and imposes a new criminal penalty for causing “serious annoyance.”

Earlier this month, the Covert Human Intelligence Sources Act received royal assent and became law. The CHIS Act, also known as the “Spycops Bill”, authorises agents of the state to commit crimes when undercover. At the same time as this new lawbreaker’s charter was being passed, the Undercover Policing Inquiry is continuing its investigation into the actions of 139 spies from different branches of the police.

These actions included launching sexual and romantic relationships with women involved in anti-racist, trade unionist, socialist and environmentalist causes. It included the fathering and abandonment of children as part of developing their cover. There is also evidence that police spies sought to actively instigate disorder, urging extreme and violent courses of action on those they met as part of their official duties.

A serious, campaigning trade union leadership would have sought to mobilise working-class people to oppose these measures. This is not just based on some abstract notion of civil liberties. It is based on the fact that workers will be the first to suffer from the ability of a Tory government to wield without hindrance the enormous and increasing power of the state.

Already, we have seen police use COVID rules to justify breaking up pickets. Before Christmas, Unite successfully legally challenged the police using these rules to disperse their picket in Leeds. Now their picket in Edinburgh has also been dispersed by police. The workers’ movement had to fight for the right to protest, strike and picket and we have to fight to keep these rights.

Mobilise a Trade Union response

Repeatedly during the pandemic, trade union leaders have shirked their responsibilities to tackle head-on attacks from the Tory government. In PCS, this can be seen from the decision by the NEC under Fran Heathcote, the current national President to throw out the union’s national pay claim for a 10% pay rise, the abandonment of any attempt to build a serious campaign and the decision instead to organise a petition in the hope of getting a debate in parliament. In the event this was attended by a bare handful of MPs.

Elsewhere, we’ve seen the decision by healthcare unions to call for a “slow clap” for the government, when they announced a 1% pay raise for swathes of the NHS, meaning a pay cut. This isn’t just an abdication of leadership; it is an attempt to demoralise workers by persuading them that nothing more can be done, because of the pandemic.

When a small group of nurses in Manchester organised a protest – socially distanced, with personal protective equipment – against the announcement that they’d receive a real-terms pay cut after literally risking their lives throughout the pandemic, they were fined by Greater Manchester Police and people were arrested at the scene. Such heavy-handed tactics are being driven by the government, to crack down on dissent.

While there is enormous pressure – including from worried people who might otherwise be supportive – not to demonstrate publicly, the reality is that the pandemic has not stopped the bosses from pursuing their agenda of job cuts, of wage cuts and of maximising profits at the expense of workers. It has not stopped the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, from seeking cuts to public services even while billions in contracts are being handed out to Tory donors.

Workers and working-class communities must respond, and the kind of political policing we have witnessed during the pandemic must be halted.

There is no end-date for the pandemic. Millions of people – billions around the world – are hoping that as the vaccine is rolled out, there can be a return to some sort of normality, but there are no guarantees, particularly as the current vaccines are less effective at some variants. The consequence of a return to normality is increased transmission – so to argue that we cannot protest during a pandemic is to put protests on hold indefinitely.

Meanwhile women’s refuges are facing cuts, rape crisis centres are facing cuts and many have already closed their books to new referrals because they have been overwhelmed. Trauma counselling services are facing cuts. Street lighting is being cut. The Crown Prosecution Service, which needs enormous investment to be able to reliably handle crimes like sexual assault and rape, is being cut. Protesting this is not optional.

With trained trade union stewards, social distancing, personal protective equipment, antibacterial substances and, crucially, with supportive, community-focused, democratically accountable policing, such protests would not add to the burden everyone faces in trying to get through the pandemic.

Mobilising in our workplaces to fight these cuts is not optional either. We need emergency services, social services and mental health services that are fit for purpose – and the only way to get these is for workers to fight, and for the communities that rely on these services to be mobilised behind the workers at the sharp end.

We need a campaigning leadership in PCS: join the Broad Left Network

The worst from amongst the trade union leaders have openly said that there is no possibility of building any serious campaigns to defend workers’ rights until after the pandemic is over. They hide behind the difficulties imposed by people working from home, they hide behind the restrictions on travel and public gatherings, and the shallow reach of social media – but, even if there wasn’t a pandemic, these leaders would find other excuses to hide behind.

The has been replicated in PCS. For the last year, the union’s National Executive Committee under Fran Heathcote has done absolutely nothing to advance the national campaign on pay. The result has been that bosses in HMRC have seen the opportunity to divide off members of the second biggest group in the union by offering them a small pay rise in exchange for the sale of certain terms and conditions.

Broad Left Network was formed by activists from across the union, in large groups and small groups, both in the public sector and the private sector, who simply could not sit back and allow the massive betrayal of members being perpetrated by the current leadership. Leadership is about building strong union branches, strong employer-based groups, about giving reps and union members the tools, they need to defend themselves and to fight for their rights.

If you want to be a part of this battle, please contact us and get involved in the fight.

BLN View 

The HMRC pay offer is the most significant issue to hit the department since it was formed in 2005. The deal itself promises a pay rise which whilst better than normal offers, also strips away a myriad of T&Cs and protections which are massively beneficial to members. The BLN utterly condemns HMRC’s behaviour – members have faced a decade of unnecessary real-terms wage cuts and whilst departmental rhetoric suggests that this offer has been put together to address this, what it really represents is the department trying to capitalise on the desperate financial position that many members find themselves in by launching an assault on members’ T&Cs. The BLN reiterates its calls for fully funded pay rises which wipe out the pay deficit suffered by members over the last decade, without any detriment to T&Cs. We call on all members to unite and reject this attack.

The Deal 

The deal itself covers a three year period from 2020/21 to 2022/23 and financially, offers an average 13% pay rise over that period. The pay award is weighted towards the lower paid grades, meaning clerical grades will benefit most – although it can’t be missed that many staff in these grades would have required minimum uplifts to keep them in line with National Minimum Wage legislation over this period, irrespective of the pay award. 

Were there no strings attached, the pay offer (whilst it may not meet the National Pay Claim), doubtless represent progress. Additionally, the introduction of home working policies, contractual flexi & reduced time to accrue annual leave will also be welcome to most members. What will be less welcome however is… 

• The removal of the MIS Agreement – an agreement which was won as a result of a successful industrial action ballot and ensures protections against management harassment for front-facing staff 
• The removal of one hour’s Reasonable Daily Travel – this protection exists specifically to ensure that when an office closes, staff cannot be forcibly redeployed to a new office if it takes more than an hour to travel to that new office – loss of this is particularly dangerous during the department’s UK-wide office closure programme  
• Mandatory Unpaid Overtime – an aspect of current contracts which will not change is the ability of the department to compel staff to work overtime – however it is rarely invoked due to being prohibitively expensive. The removal of paid overtime makes it significantly easier for the department to force staff to work regular mandatory overtime 
• Alternative Working Patterns (AWPs) – all staff on AWPs will have to reapply every five years – many staff have held these working patterns for decades and will now potentially find themselves being forced to work full-time hours, including evenings & weekends 
• The end of traditional (trad) contracts – these members are doubtless worse affected than any other group, particularly in front-line services. Again, these staff will suddenly lose aforementioned protections meaning it will no longer be prohibitively expensive for them to be compelled to work overtime, alongside suddenly losing all control they have over their working patterns and being forced onto standard rotations 
• Working week – the working week for staff in London will increase from 36 to 37 hours per week, which has a particular impact when considering the difficulties in travelling across London and other areas. Whilst this represents an increase of one hour working time, the increased travel time will be significantly higher for many London-based staff and seriously affect their work-life balance 
• Annual Leave – despite the increased accrual rate described above, members in Scotland previously had two bank holidays converted to annual leave, giving a maximum of 32 days’ leave a year. With a departmental-wide cap of 30 days, those members in Scotland will lose two days’ annual leave
• Protections – it is clear that many members with caring responsibilities and with protected characteristics will suffer most from these changes. An obvious example is how carers & parents will face major problems trying to balance their working life around their other obligations, given the lack of any specific notice periods and protections against shift changes & mandatory overtime. It is quite likely that this deal actually falls foul of indirect discrimination legislation and carriage of the deal would put PCS in the ridiculous position of having to take legal action against a deal that it recommended to members. 

Customer Services Group (CSG) 

The worst-hit members are clearly those who work in the department’s front-facing CSG. If we ask why (at a time where front-line services are so heavily understaffed to the extent that staff are continually redeployed from one helpline to the next in a desperate bid to meet demand) the CSG wants to stop traditional staff having control over their working patterns and force them onto evening & weekend working, to remove an agreement which stops telephony staff from being harassed, to introduce mandatory unpaid overtime and to remove minimum notice periods for working pattern changes – it is clear that despite PCS’ long-standing demand for HMRC to be fully staffed, the CSG’s approach is to squeeze every last drop out of their hard-pressed staff. There is no question that should these changes go through, they amount to CSG members becoming second-class citizens. 

National Campaign 

After the deal ends, there is no guarantee that the dept won’t again impose real-terms pay cuts, whilst the T&Cs lost can only be won back through a concerted & sustained industrial campaign. Members have been put in an extremely difficult position whereby they have to consider if they can personally afford to withstand the assault against their T&Cs by rejecting this deal – the BLN is here to support you in any way we can. 

The R&C GEC was split down the middle over the question of whether or not to recommend this deal to members, with 14 GEC members voting in favour and 11 voting against. We believe that many GEC members made decisions in good faith, however it is also clear that the earlier GEC decision to hold “in confidence” talks with the employer was a strategic mistake, with important detriments not coming to light until the morning that the GEC was required to make a decision. What is also clear is that this ambiguity has allowed the SV’s GEC Caucus to pursue an agenda of pushing this deal through at any cost – with members now being asked to vote on an offer which at the time of writing, still hasn’t been fully communicated to them. Members must know what they’re being asked to vote on and with the ballot due to commence on 8^th February, the full collective agreement needs to be published to members now. PCS should be arranging full members meetings where all information is available and in effect, should be holding a full membership consultation over this issue. Any ballot put to members whereby they are unable to fully scrutinise the deal they’re being offered is nothing more than a sham – and in the long term will be severely damaging to PCS.

Whilst it is appalling that the department would not use the money already present in their coffers to level up T&Cs and pay so their hard-working staff can enjoy a decent living wage, much of the blame for this mess also has to be attributed to the SV leadership within PCS, who have failed miserably to mount a proper National Pay Campaign. Given that in the last two years, the National Pay Campaign has amounted to nothing more than a parliamentary petition & failed industrial action ballot, it is clear that the SV’s national leadership (including their representatives on the R&C GEC) has been keen for this deal to go through as it will allow them climb down from the position they put to ADC 2019 – namely that the only way to progress the national campaign was via an aggregated Civil Service-wide ballot. Specifically, readers will recall that the SV desperately avoided any attempt to have a genuine debate about the best way forward and instead engaged in puerile ad hominem attacks against anyone who advocated a position contrary to theirs, claiming that those who spoke in favour of disaggregation were simply trying to score political points and in doing so were undermining the union. 

It should be pointed out that had ADC 2019 voted for disaggregation, the R&C Group (along with a number of other groups which successfully beat the ballot threshold), would have taken industrial action over pay two years ago and in doing so, would have been able to deliver a much better deal for its members than what is currently on offer. However unlike the SV, who are now so scared of conference exercising its sovereignty that its NEC members (which includes members of the R&C GEC) have scrapped the union’s constitution, the BLN fully supports the sovereignty of conference and accepted the outcome of the 2019 pay motions. Even given the limitations within the motions which were carried, the SV’s NEC caucus has still managed to do a spectacularly bad job of leading the union’s pay campaign. The SV recognises this and has calculated that it’s best way out of the situation is to use the HMRC pay deal to push for a series of departmental deals which offset pay versus T&Cs – and claim this as a resounding victory. We have already seen a great deal of opposition to this deal from many members in HMRC (particularly from those members on trad contracts) and whilst it is too early to say which way the ballot will go, it is clear that PCS stands to lose a hell of a lot of long-serving members – we cannot let this be repeated in group after group. 

BLN has consistently argued for a national pay campaign that actually listens to what members and grass roots activists want, building from the ground up rather than dictating to them from an office in Clapham. The SV has shown time and again that they are unfit to lead this union and their current position on how to take the national pay campaign forward is actively dangerous. Come the NEC elections, it is abundantly clear that the leadership needs to be replaced. The BLN urges R&C members to oppose this divisive pay offer and urges all PCS members to support BLN candidates in the forthcoming NEC elections. 

Thousands of people throughout the DVLA catchment area will have been
concerned at recent media reports of 535 COVID cases at the Agency. DVLA
has contested the reported figures, but then were forced to admit the figures
were right and apologise at the Transport Select Committee. They stated the
figure was from the whole period of the pandemic, but this masks that fact that
the vast bulk of the covid-19 cases have happened more recently in the
second wave. Also it remains the case that still making staff attend work in
person at a massive Government complex like this poses a risk at a time
when the infection rate is so high.
While many are working from home, most of the operational staff in the lower
grades are having to attend work because management say outdated IT
systems cannot be adapted for homeworking. Attending work involves using
buses in many cases.
As in any large office building, everyone knows how easily even ordinary
viruses like the cold can spread, but COVID puts a new and deadly slant on
an old problem. There is even more risk now with the new variants of Covid-
19 which spread even faster and the lack of proper ventilation in workplaces.
Every time staff speak this can help spread airborne particles of Covid-19
which can fill up indoor spaces and go further than 2 metres if fresh air is not
brought into the area. Call centre work poses are real risk of spreading covid-
19 as workers are speaking all day for their jobs.
The overriding ethos of DVLA is to maintain output and productivity and their
attitude towards everything else including health and safety is coloured by
this. Sick absence is punished in the same way as misconduct, with formal
warnings and dismissal.
The safety of workers cannot be entrusted to DVLA or any other Government
Department or Agency. PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka says he has
intervened with Ministers regarding DVLA, but more is needed. PCS must
give a lead now and take collective action to get workers out of an unsafe
environment.
Broad Left Network

The Broad Left Network is the Socialist Group inside PCS and our immediate
concerns are the employment and workplace issues that face members,
particularly health and safety at this time.
During this pandemic, we say:
 all staff should work from home unless they are key workers and their
work can only be delivered from the workplace. The definition of a key
worker must be agreed with the union, not just imposed by
management.
 Special leave with pay for all those who cannot work from home and
are not key workers.
 All sick leave related to Covid-19 to be written off including conditions
related to long-covid
 Additional compensation for extra expenses incurred through working
at home eg fuel bills.
The current Left Unity led National Executive Committee has failed to
organise members to respond collectively to achieve a national collective
agreement from the employer. Rather they have left branches like DVLA and
individual members to manage on their own. Their advice to members at the
outset of the pandemic reads “This Briefing provides general information
about statutory rights which are available to all employees. We are not
advising you to do or refrain from doing anything.” In other words, you are on
your own. This is not good enough!
From the start of the outbreak, members meetings should have been
called to make it clear that they have a legal right to refuse to work in an
unsafe environment.
Workers have the right not to go into a work area where they face serious and
imminent danger and should immediately proceed to a place of safety. The
covid-19 outbreak in the DVLA workplaces has clearly shown how dangerous
it is for staff to remain travelling to and working in these buildings with the
serious and imminent threat to public health which is posed by the incidence
and the spread of this severe acute respiratory syndrome Covid-19. Union
safety reps should assist individuals in expressing and reporting fears about
the serious and imminent danger they face and why they need to invoke their
rights to proceed to a place of safety and stay at home. There is protection
and legal rights under both Section 8 of The Management of Health and
Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and Section 44 of the Employment Rights
Act 1996.The union must throw its full weight behind members rights to be
safe, tackle DVLA management to negotiate what needs to be done to protect
the whole workforce from the risk of contracting Covid-19 and take a lead in
organising members to act collectively if management fail to respond.
Working together and with a lead from the top of PCS we can keep
members and the wider community safe during this pandemic.

ACTION NOT WORDS

Nominate Marion Lloyd for PCS National President

Nominate a fighting, democratic leadership

The Broad Left Network believes that the union needs to change if we are to mount an effective challenge to the attacks from the employer. We say:

• Members safety is paramount. Working from home must continue, exceptions only with union agreement. Mental health, well-being and stress levels addressed as a priority.
• Extend homeworking to improve work/life balance: not to close offices and save money.
• Build a national campaign to end the pay freeze, stop the attacks on our pensions and ensure a safe working environment both now and in the future.
• End privatisation, return out-sourced work to the public sector, protect jobs and conditions.
• Protect and improve lay democracy – not by an NEC stage managed 2021 conference – but by promoting an inclusive, tolerant and listening union which takes members with it.
• Protect the future of our union – not by mergers and restructures, but by developing and implementing a programme capable of building the membership and winning improvements. 

Please nominate the following candidates…

President: Marion Lloyd (BEIS)

Vice Presidents: Fiona Brittle (ScotGov), Sarah Brown (Met Police), Dave Semple (DWP)

NEC: Dave Barlett (MoJ), Rebecca Borland (Home Office), Fiona Brittle (ScotGov), Alex Brown (Health), Sarah Brown (Met Police), Kevin Denman (Met Police), Alan Dennis (DSG), Gill Foxton (DfE), Sue Francis (BEIS), Paul Guinnane (DfE), Rachel Heemskerk (DWP), Tom Lowry (DWP), Marion Lloyd (BEIS), Nick Parker (BEIS), Dave Rees (DWP), Rob Ritchie (Met Police), Dave Semple (DWP), Paul Suter (DWP), Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale (DWP), Katrine Williams (DWP), Craig Worswick (DWP), Colin Young (DfE)

“This has been a year when we’ve had to fight for our lives and livelihoods. Regrettably, on too many occasions our leadership has failed us. If I am elected as President, I promise you the NEC will never be a party to parking and watering down our full pay claim as they did in 2020 giving the employer confidence and letting down members. The work that reps and members have taken to protect our safety is inspirational. It is this, that gives me the confidence that under a new leadership, with a fresh approach, PCS can regain its fighting culture and win for members.” Marion Lloyd.

What is the Broad Left Network?

We have supporters across all groups including the Commercial Sector and from every region and nation in the UK. We are socialists united by one purpose: reclaiming the union for members to build a serious campaign that reverses the erosion of union power and wins for members.